Middle EastAnalysis

‘There’s this double feeling’: Freed Palestinian prisoner tells of joy and pain after release

Khalida Jarrar most prominent of 90 Palestinians released on Sunday as part of first phase of ceasefire agreement

Khalida Jarrar is greeted by well-wishers following her release from Israeli prison in the early hours of January 20th. Photograph: Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images
Khalida Jarrar is greeted by well-wishers following her release from Israeli prison in the early hours of January 20th. Photograph: Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images
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Michael Jansen
Mon Jan 20 2025 - 16:46

The 90 Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel on Sunday as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal included 69 women and 21 teenage boys, according to Hamas. None had been convicted of murder. Among those released, 76 were from the West Bank and 14 from East Jerusalem, which were occupied by Israel in 1967. All but seven were arrested after the October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas.

Under the first phase of the six-week ceasefire agreement, 33 Israeli hostages – including the three women released by Hamas on Sunday – are set to be exchanged for 735 Palestinian prisoners and more than 1,000 Gazan civilians, mainly women and children, captured by Israel during the war.

The most prominent prisoner freed was Khalida Jarrar (61), who had been held in administrative detention since December 2023. A leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), she was accused of planning a 2019 bombing that killed a 17-year-old Israeli girl in the West Bank. Under a plea bargain she was charged with “illegal association” and sentenced to two years in prison in 2021.

According to the Associated Press, after her release on Monday, she said: “There’s this double feeling we’re living in. On the one hand, this feeling of freedom, that we thank everyone for, and on the other hand, this pain, of losing so many Palestinian martyrs.”

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Jarrar served as head of the Palestinian prisoners’ association and worked with the Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa before being elected in 2006 to represent the PFLP in the 132-member Palestinian legislature: 15 of her colleagues have also been imprisoned. She has represented Palestine at the Council of Europe and was heavily involved in securing the Palestinian bid to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). The court has issued warrants on charges of war crimes for the arrest of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant. Her husband, toy manufacturer Ghassan Jarrar, has been arrested 14 times and has spent about 10 years in prison without charges or trial.

Journalist Bushra Al-Tawil (31), was arrested for the first time while in secondary school and sentenced to 16 months in prison. Freed five months later in a prisoner swap, she studied journalism and founded a news network to cover Israeli mistreatment of prisoners and media personnel. Between 2014 and 2022, she was held under administrative detention for several years. Her father, Jamal Al-Tawil, a prominent Hamas leader and former mayor of Al-Bireh city in the West Bank, has spent many years in prison. Her husband Mohammed Al-Tawil is serving nine life sentences.

Freelance journalist Rula Hassanein was also freed. She was accused of incitement on social media, a frequent charge against Palestinian activists, and arrested last March. She suffers from a chronic kidney disorder and has been in poor health.

The youngest Palestinian prisoner to be released was Mahmoud Aliowat (15), who was convicted of wounding two Israelis in a Jerusalem shooting when he was 13. Ahmad Khsha (18) was arrested in January 2024 in Jenin after his brother was killed in a clash with the Israeli army.

Dalal Al-Azouri (52) is the younger sister of Saleh Al-Azouri, the deputy head of Hamas politburo and West Bank military chief who was assassinated by Israel in Beirut in January 2024. She was arrested and indicted for funding her brother and supporting Hamas’s 2023 attack on southern Israel.

According to Israeli official figures, there are 10,221 Palestinians in Israeli prisons: 3,376 are held under administrative detention while another 1,886 are classified as “unlawful combatants” and detained without charge or trial.

Imposed by Britain during the 1920-1948 mandate and retained by Israel, administrative detention allows repeated periods of detention without the accused being charged, tried, convicted or sentenced.